Sunday 11 December 2011

A day full of inspiration and pants!



Pipolitta Rist @ Hayward
Up at 5am today to catch 7.15 train from leeds to London. A great day, I have to say, the negaitive is it went so quick! The morning was spent at the V&A where I attended 'The power of Making' interesting start...with the curators talk about how craft is settinga new landscape within creative industry...and then it died a little , the interiewee was rather annoying! I sat next to a lady form the design musuem and we talked briefly. I wonder what its like to have a job as a curator in such a wounderful place as the Design musuem, imagine all the interesting people you would meet and all the interesting work you would see and be involved in?? I remember seeing Martino Camper there a few years ago..he had produced 100 chairs in 100 days...the whole room was littered with chairs made from chairs. I mention him as he was one the designers due to speak at the event, but because of illness he could not make it...damn shame!!  see extract below...
.

6 September 2011–2 January 2012

The Porter Gallery
Room 48
Admission free
The V&A and Crafts Council celebrate the role of making in our lives by presenting an eclectic selection of over 100 exquisitely crafted objects, ranging from a life-size crochet bear to a ceramic eye patch, a fine metal flute to dry stone walling. Power of Making is a cabinet of curiosities showing works by both amateurs and leading makers from around the world to present a snapshot of making in our time.
The exhibition showcases works made using a diverse range of skills and explores how materials can be used in imaginative and spectacular ways, whether for medical innovation, entertainment, social networking or artistic endeavour.
Making is the most powerful way that we solve problems, express ideas and shape our world. What and how we make defines who we are, and communicates who we want to be.
For many people, making is critical for survival. For others, it is a chosen vocation: a way of thinking, inventing and innovating. And for some it is simply a delight to be able to shape a material and say ‘I made that’. The power of making is that it fulfills each of these human needs and desires.
Those whose craft and ingenuity reach the very highest levels can create amazing things. But making is something everyone can do. The knowledge of how to make – both everyday objects and highly-skilled creations – is one of humanity’s most precious resources.
Guest Curator, Daniel Charny

Daniel Charmy taked passionatly about how it important Craft is in society in particular creative industry. Craft is running forward together with digital technology..this made me think that if the traditional elements of craft is so important then why in education are we losing our ceramics, darkrooms and printrooms to settle for digital..??? its a scray thought that in 10-20 yrs time all this will be lost to the future, students will have to look up how to process a film on wikipedia if they want to know the technique...and do it themselves at home, thats of course they can still buy the developer?? crazy. This notion was confirmed recently when a lecturer from the BA photography course at Hull could not believe that we still had a dark room, as far as he was concerned it was wasted space and we at Harrogate still lived in the dark ages...Of course we engage in digital technology..yes!! but what about the wounderful process of being able to actually make something, physically I mean...to feel the material your working with, to smell it, for it to evolve before your eyes I have to say is the best thing of all. So then why cant both craft and technology in education run pararel together, why I ask does the traditional have to be phased out if there is such an upsurge of craft in industry???    

http://www.vam.ac.uk/channel/happenings/exhibitions_and_galleries/power_of_making/

Ok the afternoon was spent at the wounderful Hayward Gallery, on the southbank, I love this gallery and this part of town, the walk across the bridge from embankment to southbank is breathtaking. I always have to stop and take in the the city's skyline. Anyway back to the Hayward, currently showing is Pipilotti Rist. PR is a video/installation artist, sculptor who produces colourful themed projections on a large scale, underpants chandelier (see above image) to handbags and shells with little narrative projections staring out. wow i was and am so inspired. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uKR-QhjOz-o    

Video...Pipilotti Rist made her first experimental videos in the late 1980s. These were single-channel videos; works that involve a single tape, one playback device and one display mode, such as a TV screen. While music plays a large part in these, Rist’s main interest is in the perceived failings and shortcomings of video. "I’m interested in feedback and generation losses, like colour noise and bleeds. In my experiments with video it becomes clear to me how these supposedly, faulty, opportune images are like the pictures in my own subconscious."


Installation Soon after making her first experimental videos, Pipilotti Rist started creating environments that influenced the way in which her works were seen. Videos are projected in unexpected ways in order to manipulate scale, context and the position of the spectator. Works are projected at angles on the wall, or onto the floor so that visitors can move in and around them, and also become part of them. Over the years, Rist has progressively redefined this relationship between audience and art work, creating all-enveloping visual environments that place particular importance on the viewer’s physical presence. Rist comments: ’When I close my eyes, my imagination roams free. In the same way I want to create spaces for video art that rethink the very nature of the medium itself. I want to discover new ways of configuring the world, both the world outside and the world within.’ These immersive installations are, in effect, an invitation into a parallel world – into Pipilotti’s world


Sculpture Rist began to make sculptural works in order to escape the confines of the two-dimensional screen, and to open herself up to multiple possibilities. By combining videos with everyday objects, she changes their nature and imbues the most ordinary events or objects with a sense of wonder. Believing that the objects that surround us contain memories and have stories to tell, Rist integrates video projectors and screens in unexpected things and places: tiny monitors are hidden in handbags or displayed on a gigantic lettuce, projectors are placed in a watering-can and a hanging saucepan, and a book, a vase and a chair are all used as projection surfaces.




Thursday 8 December 2011

I try to think of what time is and all I can think is...''time is time was.'' Warhol

Working on the 'Creative Skills' module has got me thinking about what I have achieved this year...which if I think back is quite abit.
1. becoming Web 2.0 friendly or not (the negatives first) i.e. social networking, that is facebook, which I can proudly say I am no longer part of. I say this simply because Im not interested in other peoples buisness, or do I want them to know my personal activity...enough said. I also looked at twitter another waste of time a 140 something characters to put your voice across, where do people find the time..? I have 50 followers, why? where did they come from?? I haven't said anything, just joined up (that reminds me I must come off that too)!!. Ok so I have presented the negatives first thats because Im saving the best till last and that is blogging..!! yes dear 'blogger' friend you have motivated to write again, to express my thoughts in a quick, organised and clear manner which I cant do if writing in pen? writing a blog has also allowed me to ramble privately what ever comes to mind, reflect, problem-solve, post up new findings / research and develop...(until DDP is complete this is how I wish it to stay). who would want to read my blog anyway?

2. using a mac! which I have started to use lately on reqular bases, why was I ever frightened, seems crazy? anyway the reason being is working with film, which when I think about it im not sure how it came about...just had this sudden urge to make film.( will have to look back previous postings) As a result of this urge, Ive learnt how to create film, download onto imovie and edit (30.11.2011). Editing is going to be the hard bit, that is, knowing exactly what to cut. My theory is to edit every 2nd or 3rd frame and then from there assess and work on again...get it down to 8/10 mins (some films are an hr long) and speed up, the car jouney Im considering reversing the film so that I now following the car that was behind me, it will be like driving looking through the rear view mirror...not sure this make sense but i know what I am thinking about here. something that I have consider is that the films Ive made need to shorter, easier then to edit down. However the project I have in mind will not require editing, I want them to run, to think about what could happen..i discussed this in last posting..what i have thought about now is to set up 2 cameras one where there is nothing going on the other where there is, Im going on this theory of metaphysics, of time and space and that 'nothing' in context (is) relevant to someone/something, somewhere, sometime, somehow...I like this idea of watching 'nothing' in the hope that something will happen, and at the end of watching it was it relief that nothing happened or disappointing because it would have been good to have something to look forward too??? ummm.......

Im currently reading Andy Warhol: the philosophy of Andy Warhol..its great! really enjoying his writings, amusing too. I need this book at the moment, funny how things come into your life when you least expect them too. Serendipity i guess. furthermore this book only came about because my colleague had mentioned Warhol's 8 hr film of the Empire state building, which got me thinking about he's reasons for creating film..this book does illustrate this briefly in chapter called 'work', but it refers to his reflections on himself, which I can relate to and what encourages me to think about my own practice. Ive just thought that I need to list films made so far...November 2011. Letter box (1hr) car journey (1hr 20) cat flap (20 mins) radiant map (5-10mins) student films (1hr) 

3. writing a paper. (difficult at times) Im not sure Im a writer in the academic sense its gaining that experience, writing papers are all about presenting structure and being able to write in a particular way and importantly to demonstrate new knowledge..I like to write freely which means not having to worry that Im not doing it correctly... this attitude wont get me anywhere so I shall keep on with..the plus is I definatly think I have developed my writing skills over the past year. I like words, I wish blog you had a thesaurus??

Moving on..
This posting started as a reflection of what I have achieved this year...I needed to do that, not sure why but its there now and will no doubt contribute somewhere later on. As result of writing it down this years achievements, it has presented futher considerations to the outcome of pursuing such activities. For the purpose of the module I now want to think about the radiant map. I want to get it clear in my head what it is i want to discuss and how..illustrated below are areas I have had to consider when defining 'problem space' within my learning contract.. 

elements required to form  new knowledge




Development of radiant map


As applied in a game I have used cards to write down reflections, actions and evaulations created from links that is threads of thought, my ideas created using letra set onto acetate to move around the board. By means of raising the acetate I realised that the words formed shadows on the board, this interested me and what made me think about Plato's, The Allegory of the Cave, extract taken from Wikipedia:
In the dialogue, Socrates describes a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Socrates, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners...To consider the shadows created from my process of thoughts could be likened to universal concepts advancing to new knowledge.
The Allegory is related to Plato's Theory of Forms, according to which the "Forms" (or "Ideas"), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. Only knowledge of the Forms constitutes real knowledge. In addition, the Allegory of the Cave is an attempt to explain the philosopher's place in society: to attempt to enlighten the "prisoners".




Friday 25 November 2011

Getting there...finally


Radiant Map Nov2011 in developmental stages
whats new well the good news is I finished (well almost) IPR report..thank you me, just need to check over finer details...its not great I have to say but I have done the best I can. so there!
I have updated radiant map since last posting...as you can just about see (picture is from my phone..not great) I have taken lots more on borrowed camera from college, which are much better but I wont be downloading those until I have pretty much completed module...theres lots to do yet.
Ok getting back to radiant map I have on the travel cards made further points, rambling- thoughts really telling myself what to start thinking about in terms of what I should be considering now. Point 1. not to use 'time' as an issue but to work with it...it will always be issue so what can I do, I know that once I have finished MA I will have more time to research/practice. I'm being positive here can you tell?? Point 2. to keep up and maintain postings, yes you dear blogger...Point 3. my practice in terms of films I have created so far, there must be 6 or 7 of these now...all lining up to be edited (shall come back to that shortly) Point 4. actions set now. that's it I think. Ive added a 'STOP' just before reaching the future and questioned WHAT IS MY CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE. I thought about the game Monopoly when adding this..I may play on that abit more, I think it may help?? 

Detail of coloured thread and dressmaking pins
You can just make it out in the image that I have started to create another layer above what I see as stage 1. (RM) the single centre of enquiry. I want to show a 3d platform that considers stage 2. integrated map-multiple centres of enquiry. To do this I have used foam board to place the RM over, I have then used coloured thread and dressmaking pins to help illustrate relationships between areas.

The idea comes from an exhibition at the V&A 'Out of the Ordinary- Spectacular Craft' where I came across the work of Anne Wilson..Topologies (2002-ongoing) lace thread, cloth, pins, painted wood support. I shall find an image..back shortly! found something. see image. 
Anne Wilson Topologies 2002


Ok so this is how I see it developing along with the written commentary of my development. Going back to editing I mentioned earlier that I had made 6/7 films so far that i need to edit. Naomi is going to advise me on this which we shall do next Thursday 1st December..look forward to getting on with the next stage. Having practiced today (without Matt's bit of paper) I can download film onto imovie, hooray!! I'm pleased with myself as not easy to remember. on that I did some filming with fashion students today..we went through a mock run of putting a garment together within an hr hr. the aim was really to get them to think about the different elements that will make up the final piece..the sequence of processes they need to entertain before doing their live performance. I hope to show them next week how to edit, the very basics anyway.      
Finally having to and fro with Eric again this week and getting on-where he has sent me a link which I have tried accessing through my email but with no avail..will do in next posting...
defiantly last thing. I looked up Andy Warhol's 8hrs and 5minutes black and white film of Empire state building shot in 1964. it made think about my own work, in terms of what is important and what is not...? how do we know? taking film of nothing and putting into a context of what people are doing in space and time is relevant isn't it? we cant see it but whilst I m here writing this post I wonder about life around me, it still continues on even though I stop and pause at precisely 18:35 (draft saved)


looking at warhol's film it makes you think that something might happen so you keep watching not wanting to miss out..
from wikipedia.
Philosophy of space and time is the branch of philosophy concerned with the issues surrounding the ontology, epistemology, and character of space and time. While such ideas have been central to philosophy from its inception, the philosophy of space and time was both an inspiration for and a central aspect of early analytic philosophy. The subject focuses on a number of basic issues, including—but not limited to—whether or not time and space exist independently of the mind, whether they exist independently of one another, what accounts for time's apparently unidirectional flow, whether times other than the present moment exist, and questions about the nature of identity (particularly the nature of identity over time).

The Empire State Building filmed for 8 consecutive hours from dusk till dawn of the following day, shot on the night of the 25th of June 1964 from the 44th floor of the Time Life Building. «Empire» is an object-trouvé, a ready-made that prefigured todays webcam images. It can also be considered a ‹structural film›: the obsessive repetition of the same image triggers our focus on the act of looking, on the value of the frame and most of all on the film duration. Time of reality and time of cinema are the same.
Empire State Building 8hr, 5 min B&W film







Saturday 19 November 2011

Camera, action and nothingness???

Letter box
Forgot to add to yesterdays post that I have created my first film which I did by propping open the letterbox and setting up camera inside it, I left it to record for about 1 hr 20 minutes. Ive had a look at the first 2 minutes and basically it has recorded nothing except a car going past. Im hoping there will be some other added extras, anyway will see??. Yesterday Matt in photography helped me download onto Imovie, next thursday I shall look at editing it down to I guess 3-5 minutes. Today I hid the camera in the boot of my car and left it recording whilist I went to Sainsburys and back, Ive had a quick look, its like looking constantly into the rear view mirror. I wanted to capture peoples activity such as facial expressions, conversations and bordom when driving...from what I have viewed I think I need to home in more to see, or thinking about it clean the rear window (dirty). What do I want from all of this?? I think its about voyeurism...(Voyeurism (from the French voyeur, "one who looks") not in an intimate way, but instead to communicate reality within time and space. the next film will be set up in a cafe??, I want to put the camera under a table to capture foot movement, restlessness...foot-talk.

thinking about DDP stuff. still on with IPR report, really dull (sorry Stuart if you ever read this post) for creative thinking I have drawn up a radiant map which I put up in yesterdays posting ..to continue I have thought about buying dome tags and writing questions that come to mind for each section, the end result will be something quite different and creative. to think about my future self as someone who is not teaching anymore but lecturing whilist holding down a research position..I also see myself living in a quirky house or cottage maybe, that has a beautiful garden which I spend alot of time tending too, I continue to read and listen to music, I dont drink so much or smoke anymore and I am really happy with my life, I have also gotten over the fact that age is going to happen whatever I do and that no expensive facecream is going to sort it...is this all too personal?? ummmm 

Thursday 17 November 2011

Long time, no see...Im back!

Radient map, integrated mind map, universal forms and purposeful ways of seeing...is the focus of today. Here you can see the foundation of what I hope will grow (layers) over the next 4 weeks. it has 4 sections. 1 current experience. 2 questions I need to answer. 3 planning out what are the issues, what is important to me. 4 the future, how I see myself finishing DDP.
what I need to do now is home in 2 & 3, these both relate to one another, issues such as, time, work and home life but to be honest I dont think I will ever overcome these areas, instead I will have to deal with it and get on! So are the issues the not important bit.? Ill come back to that later.
Ok today I had a supervisory session with Stuart and Fiona (2:30-3:30) we pretty much went over the last session discussing current focus, that is time base media and applying it to capture the creative process. I mentioned to Fiona 'Showstudio' and she said that neil??? (a colleague I think) had put together a student project for UNILEVER. one of the students produced sketches from start to finish using video and then edited it down to a short film...fiona is going to try and provide me with a copy..
I spoke to stuart about MA and that I was looking forward to completing modules next year, furthermore to be freed up to focus only on the DDP. I cant do that until the MA is out of the way...so coming back to the issue of time this can only improve. Stuart suggested that I use modules to contribute toward DDP, which I have been doing?? We, Fiona, talked about Susie Norris who is hopefully finishing DDP next year (fast track) she has been using a Blog (20,000 words +) which will form the foundation for her final write up, more amazingly she is holding down a head of fashion role (I think) at Southampton Solent  and has 4 children, I say children they could be teenagers, anyway that doesn't matter, what matters is she coping, again Im assuming, what an inspiration, would like to talk to her.
So to finish up on discussion. 1 Fiona will provide (hopefully) film, 2 I must continue to read (and I know I am not doing AT ALL!) 3 think about what my portfoilio  will be to will be to raise questions now and use of different creative tools to help focus thoughts etc. I need to seak to Erik Bohimien and chap at LeedsMet, opps forgot name
NEXT meeting is January 19th, Thursday @ 2:30pm with Stuart and Fiona

Thursday 20 October 2011

camera, action and supervisory session

good day today (well kind of) but will come back to that later, I dont wont to spoil things now i am on a writing flow..........this morning online session with SE ref. IPR was informative, I think im getting there and now we have requested more time is a relief. Im going to make some notes from that session to help myself think...here goes:
Intrtoduction (50-100)
Summary of rights (organisations) (300)

what I do & why IP is important to me? (100)

discussion of critical issues in your practice...evidence from  (1000)
1.case studies from your practice
2. case studies from your lit review

summary of findings (with focus on relevance in your practice) 300   (total 1800).

I think im going to look at copyright, seems to be the most relevant to me, in particular to research (papers) and virtual application (i.e. blogs, educational tools to enhance and inform leaning etc etc) Ive looked at an article on the Guardian ref live chats (June 2012) 'Live Chat: intellectual Property Rights' I hoped there would be something to watch on youtube, but unfortunatly only a blog showing highlights (dull)! why have a live chat and not post it up as a recording event for all to see??? anyway through that article I have found 'Web2right' focuses on cultural and practical technologies (web 2,0) that are being deployed to engage and communicate with staff and students across HE and FE education...this is a grey area and is still unfolding, Ive printed lots off but it is only the foundations, I need to locate something more gritty that is cutting edge and what is interesting case study...this is as far as Ive got other than buying yet another book 'Waterstones guide 2008 guide' and yes its all about Intellectual Property Rights..!!

....moving on to grander things and what I have based todays picture on (show studio) is my online supervisory session with SE (2:30-3:45) I have to say wasn't expecting it to go on too long as I did not have much to report since our last meeting 2 weeks ago. (although I have made contact with Ian Truelove ' Leedsmet Wednesday am to discuss Cagd website) but thats it...so busy all the time! oh and there was London visit.
...right I need to write the conversation down whilist still fresh in my head and get it typed up onto doc supervisory form to send to SE. SE mentioned from last meeting about bringing back his online 'portfolio' as a vechicle for me to use for ddp, this is still not confirmed...SE also mentioned talking to Eric Bohemian about his work with design studios...to question what he has done, outcomes and direction...(so shall email)

now comes the hard bit...I must get into the habit of recording conversations, I have a dictaphone and I don't use it?? whats the point...so I make life hard for myself and scribble frantically and then it doesn't make sense...
...ok here goes, what properly started the conversation is I guess is the IP module and the fact that I dont want my focus to be a 'Virtual' one, (so should I scrap the Virtual research, hell leave it for a minute) so only in the sense that it will used as a tool for students to perform their creative journey through, evidenicing creative sitiuations. A window if you like to the wider audience.
so the Aim is then to capture and communicate the dynamics of the design process through some form of time based media. The process should be seen as a living outcome, the raw product. SE relates time to music as being part of it, in terms of the rhythm, where as the design process works on lots of different speeds...but doesnt music conform in the same way, working also to different speeds particulary when creating a sound the same issues are still there, I wounder if SE is suggesting in time and space, that it stays where it is and the design process can allow itself to be interpreted, no what rubbish, that isn't right?? i will have to ask him again..
questions to ask myself: 1. could the 'design process' be a part of time flexable condensed down (showing key parts) or not? ; 2. how can I show the performance of the design process in a way that is engaging and lends itself to an immdediate appreciation as a process but also a product?; 3. could the design process be a step through journey with the designer?; 4. how do I see design process as a conceptual narrative in education.
what is the purpose; firstly using showstudio as point of inspiration, could I employ the effectiveness of their website and put it in an educational one, to focus on the process, as the final product, SE said something rather interesting in that when seeing an exhibition of final works is easy to read and understand, however a room full of design processes takes more time to digest and will need time to think over; just had a thought there about music, who would want to see the process of making music?? wouldn't you rather see the end result is that the difference SE was referring too(perhaps not). finally to show the process as product through the use of time base media; to use as assessment, peer learning, e-Portfolio and industry etc etc. did I get it all, need to over.  laslty I discuss with SE that I would be learning myself how to film and edit as part of my portfolio. SE suggested that this could contribute to capturing timebased creative work, recording the creative narrative..think about what is important and what isnt. A CHAllenge...not about the recording but about the making, the collaboration, the individual journey...signing off 

Next meeting date is scheduled for thursday 17th November 2:30-3:30 

Tuesday 18 October 2011

London visit

London visit: Tuesday 11th- Friday14th October 2011










Highlights from the London trip:
Tacita Dean at Tate Modern, The Unilever Series her response entitiled 'FILM' is a slient 35mm looped film projected onto a monolith standing 13 metres tall. pretty impressive as a visual output, however I did feel abit dissappointed that 1 you could not see it from walking into the Turbine hall and 2 I guess I was expecting something different??..Deans 'The Sea, with a Ship; afterwards an Island 1999' Blackboard drawings Three parts, each 244 x 488 cm, were breathtaking, and innovative
I came away totally inspired and in awe of these large scaled, memorising works...here is an artists talk from 2006 http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/26649826001

from the show:
Tacita Dean is a British artist now based in Berlin, best known for her use of film. Dean’s films act as portraits or depictions rather than conventional cinematic storytelling, capturing fleeting natural light or subtle shifts in movement. Her static camera positions and long takes allow events to unfold unhurriedly. Other works have attempted to reconstruct events from memory, such as an infamous thwarted attempt to circumnavigate the world.
Dean’s interest in the cinematic also extends to her work in other media. The Russian Ending 2001 borrows its title from the early Danish cinema tradition of making two alternate endings for a film: one happy for the American market and one tragic for the Russian market. In this work, Dean annotated postcards of catastrophes with director's notes.
Many of Dean’s works show the ways in which architecture can be transformed by the camera's lens. Craneway Event 2009 follows the choreographer Merce Cunningham (1919–2009) and his dance company rehearsing in a former Ford assembly plant, built of glass and steel and overlooking the San Francisco Bay. Dean’s film allows the ever-changing light of this environment to fall in rhythm with the dancers’ movements.
Dean will be making a new commission especially designed to respond to the architecture of Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. The Unilever Series has become renowned as one of the most exciting and impressive contemporary art exhibitions in London each year and will be free to view.
Video Link http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/1211868281001


From the show: Grayson Perry The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman, British Museum
Video link http://bri.mu/r0v6jH
Grayson Perry curates an installation of his new works alongside objects made by unknown men and women throughout history from the British Museum’s collection.
He’ll take you to an afterlife conjured from his imaginary world, exploring a range of themes connected with notions of craftsmanship and sacred journeys – from shamanism, magic and holy relics to motorbikes, identity and contemporary culture.
Vases covered in witty captions, elaborate tapestries and the centrepiece, a richly decorated cast iron coffin-ship, will be displayed alongside objects from the past two million years of culture and civilisation. From the first great invention, the hand axe, to a Hello Kitty pilgrim hand-towel, you will discover a reality that is old and new, poetic and factual, and funny as well as grim.
‘This is a memorial to all the anonymous craftsmen that over the centuries have fashioned the manmade wonders of the world…
The craftsman’s anonymity I find especially resonant in an age of the celebrity artist.’
Grayson Perry RA, Turner Prize winner

Infinitas Gracias: Mexican miracle paintings

Im saving the best till last and what a great find... 'the Wellcome Collection' 108 Euston rd showing a wounderful exhibition made up of Mexican votives, small paintings, usually executed on tin roof tiles or small plaques, depicting the moment of personal humility when an individual asks a saint for help and is delivered from disaster and sometimes death. The votives displayed in 'Infinitas Gracias' date from the 18th century to the present day. Over this period, thousands of small paintings came to line the walls of Mexican churches as gestures of thanksgiving, replacing powerful doctrine-driven images of the saints with personal and direct pleas for help. The votives are intimate records of the tumultuous dramas of everyday life - lightning strikes, gunfights, motor accidents, ill-health and false imprisonment - in which saintly intervention was believed to have led to survival and reprieve.

Sunday 16 October 2011

how to waste time researching by heidi donohoe






                    







yesterday and today I have spent time (and lots of it) researching, i have caught up on blogs, lastest news i.e. art, e-learning etc...which as always leads to one thing or another if the focus is not there (that is if im not too sure what i am researching and just hoping that some sort of 'ha ha' moment will occur) you can spend an awful lot of wasted time, going off in tangents and ending up nowhere! which I do often and is something i tell students not to do. anyway this is what I spent time looking at..going off on lots of different strands, but interesting ones all the same..


Bradford W. Mott et al. argue, in "Towards Narrative-Centered Learning Environments", that, by enabling learners to be co-constructors of narratives, narrative-centred learning environments can promote the deep, connection-building meaning-making activities that define constructivist learning. They do so by providing engaging worlds in which learners are involved in story-centred problem-solving activities.

One of the central tenets of constructivism, Mott et al. remind us, is that "learners should be engaged in active exploration and develop an understanding of a domain through challenging and enjoyable problem-solving activities." By exploiting the familiar structures of story and the practices of story-telling, narrative-centred learning environments enable this active engagement explicitly.

The significance of narratives is two-fold. First, by means of narrative experience learners are transported to other worlds in a manner that is compelling and real-seeming. Second, learners perform the narrative: they are active in drawing inferences and experiencing emotions, again in a real-seeming way. As such, according to Mott et al., narrative is an effective tool for exploring the structures and processes of meaning making.

They cite Bruner (1990), who defines narrative as "[a] unique sequence of events, mental states, happenings involving human beings as characters or actors". The meaning of these constituents of narrative "is given by their place in the overall configuration of the sequence as a whole - its plot or fabula."

Allan Parsons...

In terms of the schema being developed through this blog, some slight vocabulary changes may be necessary. The first involves the performative dimension of narrative, noted by Mott et al.. The kind of environment being constructed could more precisely be defined as "narrative-performative learning environments", implying a constructivist approach to learning, as Mott et al. state. In this approach, we would argue that both museums and libraries potentially are "narrative-performative learning environments".

The second shift is to move from the use of the phrase "meaning making" to that of "sense-making", in which insights from ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionism and Goffman's presentation of the self are incorporated.

In this way, narrative is taken as an aid to sense-making, by means of which the world and other people are made intelligible to oneself; and by means of which self-and-other make the world mutually intelligible for one another. This engenders a cycle of embodied interaction whereby worlds are brought into being and into play. Such worlds exhibit regimes of sense and order, which are performatively maintained and sustained, materially, in terms of the environment, and behaviourally, in terms of the body.

In short, the vocabulary of "meaning making" is shifted onto that of "sense-making" and "order-making", along with a vocabulary employing such notions as intelligibility, mutual intelligibility and world making, under a performative (constructivist, non-foundational) ontology and epistemology. The goal of this shift of vocabulary is to develop a clear understanding of what a performative approach to constructivist learning implies.

John Seely Brown http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u-MczVpkUA&feature=player_detailpage discusses 'tinkering as a mode of knowledge' heres what I remember from 'you tube' link. Create knowledge by experimentation..look at ways of fostering imagination...create, reflect and share based on a culture that usues peer learning! (Peer based learning communities). new types of learning environments where the teacher is seen more as the mentor, orchastrator etc. He mentions 'Tinkering' does the thing I have built work? and concrete things...ground truths ie why? 'Authority' is it as good as I think it should be? this is all about tinkering with ideas around us and being open to critism, ask good questions, find things we dont know..he uses as a metaphor 'architectural studio' to describe all working progress made public...



Isobel knowles You were in my dreams..


I though this was interesting concept by Isobel knowles... The germ of the idea for 'You Were In My Dream' began with the idea of putting a viewer's head onto an animated character via a live video feed. We were struck by the strange feeling you get from watching your disembodied head transformed into another universe. http://vimeo.com/isobelknowles/youwereinmydream although it looks strange...I like idea as a different approach to learning...you could become anything, a no. a letter, a character in history etc...

Thursday 6 October 2011

IP research and chocolate

umm chocolate, topic of Intellectual Property online session this morning with Stuart...I think Im starting to understand it, however not enough to realise where it fits into my practice! although saying this I have started some research looking into 'research papers' (who owns them??) covered in a live debate in The Guardian, 8th June 2011, interestingly enough Steve Wheeler covered the topic in his blog last week..so I may go down this route?? t has to be interested as it does prove to be dull reading! I had a skype session with Stuart today (at last...) I was worried about what exactly I was going to discuss with Stuart, but should not have been as all flowed well. We discussed development of research, in terms of more reading (ie literature review) theories relating  to finding new knowledge..where are those 'missing holes and opportunities', I own up to not doing much of this in awhile, so need to get on with it.
I talked to Stuart about making contact with Ian Truelove at Leedsmet, ref: CAGD. I want to look at the mechanisim of the website (does it do what it says on the package?)..this I shall do tomorrow...Stuart is also keen to look at setting up again 'Openfolio' perhpas to work on together, not sure? and perhaps to do some work with the MA students potentially next Jan to May or October to December 2012...we shall see.

 

Research

Today has been better..online with Stuart (9:30am) discussing IP starting to get it now...I have done some research but still considering what to relate to my practice which means i need to read more to really good a good understanding, however I must admit I am finding it incredibly dull!

Thursday 29 September 2011

Waiting Room...

thats what today has felt like...alot of waiting and wasted time. Unfortunalty modules posted up onto the blackboard were not working so we spent time virtually hanging about...that was the this morning, eventually someone came to our rescue and we closed doors on one virtual space to enter another where Stuart was waiting hooray! this afternoon wasn't much better...nobody about to deliver new module. I grit my teeth as I think there is alot to be said for virtual learning enviroments, they are souless places that are confusing, time consuming and dull...its weird to think that whilist real life continues their are pockets of people floating about in these virtual no-mans land waiting room! It can only get better...
                                                                                   
...anyway Ive some research today...read through blogs, looked at TED and came across photographer Vera Lutter..who uses pin hole camera to take what are described a 'ghostly' images. I really like this technique, because of its simplicity as well as the wounderful effects that can be created from just a recipe made up of a box, needle, tape and roll / sheet film
http://www.kodak.com/ek/US/en/Pinhole_Camera.htm
 Extract  from Guardian 29th april 2011: One of the reasons Lutter's images feel tangible and yet weird is that they're realised in negative, so that light forms auras where shadows should be cast and the sky is always black. But it's also the way she makes them, using one of photography's simplest and oldest devices –the pinhole camera. This is time-consuming business, requiring long exposures so that the film not only records the outlines of buildings but the ghost-like forms that move in and out of the frame as the clock ticks on. They can be crafted from anything: Lutter has used an old trunk for some of her work, but she's regularly worked with room-sized boxes to create huge, one-off images.

finally...Ive got some reading to do on intellectual property http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ before next week to test knowledge of IP and find out what aspects of IP are mosr important to me and why?? shall think about that one when Ive done some reading. Next supervisory meeting Thursday 6th October @ 1:30 (1hr) blimey need to think about that too my research that is...currently I have been looking at ideas that are different to current thoughts...even the title conceptual narrative is being questioned? i still wont to focus on 'communication' poppers universal concepts are really interesting and Stuarts paper to thinking about problem space is also interesting. what I am not happy with is the practical element...I want to hypothesis about my ideas and write about them as grand theories, having pre-emptied my thoughts in the paper (i cried over) during the summer I realised that the practical element (i.e 2.0) of my not new idea is already very fruitful in education and what is a good thing....how do I compete and do I want too. Steve wheelers blog..Tuesday, 27 September 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjwo-uJaJPU&feature=player_embedded he discusses the importance of 2.0 (social web tool) as the new educational landscape that is forever changing in a way that it is offering so many possibilties i.e. in the way learners communicate, content of learning and collaboration. risks are being taken which is subsequential allows for learners to take responsibitiy for their own learning..I really need to think about this but for now im signing off!!

Talking to camera 

Sunday 18 September 2011

hooray for The world of interiors...

god i love this magazine the only beside 'Crafts' that I will bother to spend my money on.. I'm going through (as I always do) back to front and then front to back..nothing is spared. Anyway I mentioned that I am going to London with the students in October, so still looking out for anything abit different. This months shows a wonderful review on (a gallery I have not heard before, but wish I had..) Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, UK Phone: +44 (0)20 7611 2222 top end of Gower street so I know where it is and not far from hotel!. The exhibition is called 'Miracles and Charms' (6th Oct-26th Feb) which looks at a collection of Mexican images that are thank you notes to God and Saints...Votive.
Quote: 'Votives objects have a long history, going back to at least ancient Greeks and in this collection they are typically painted on tin tile roofs and tell stories from the 18th c to the 1970's'. I first came across Votive s during studying for my MA at CSM, writing a dissertation on Mexican politics which naturally lead me to look at the work and life of Diego Rivera and Frida Khalo, big influences of mine at the time. Anyway I'm really looking forward to experiencing this exhibition

http://www.wellcomecollection.org/press/press-releases/miracles-and-charms.aspx




Infinitas Gracias: Mexican miracle painting Mexican votives are small paintings, usually executed on tin roof tiles or small plaques, depicting the moment of personal humility when an individual asks a saint for help and is delivered from disaster and sometimes death. 'Infinitas Gracias' will feature over 100 votive paintings drawn from five collections held by museums in and around Mexico City and two sanctuaries located in mining communities in the Bajío region to the North: the city of Guanajuato and the distant mountain town of Real de Catorce. Together with images, news reports, photographs, devotional artefacts, film and interviews, the exhibition will illustrate the depth of the votive tradition in Mexico.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15194491

Usually commissioned from local artists by the petitioner, votive paintings tell immediate and intensely personal stories, from domestic dramas to revolutionary violence, through which a markedly human history of communities and their culture can be read. Votives to be displayed in 'Infinitas Gracias' date from the 18th century to the present day. Over this period, thousands of small paintings came to line the walls of Mexican churches as gestures of thanksgiving, replacing powerful doctrine-driven images of the saints with personal and direct pleas for help. The votives are intimate records of the tumultuous dramas of everyday life: lightning strikes, gun fights, motor accidents, ill health and false imprisonment; in which saintly intervention was believed to have led to survival and reprieve.
'Infinitas Gracias' will explore the reaction of individuals at the moment of crisis in which their strength of faith comes into play. The profound influence of these vernacular paintings, and the artists and individuals who painted them, can be seen in the work of such figures as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, who were avid collectors. The contemporary legacy of the votive ritual will be present in the exhibition through a wall covered with modern day offerings from one church in Guanajuato: a paper shower of letters, certificates, photographs, clothing and flowers, through which the tradition of votive offering continues today. The sanctuaries at Guanajuato and Real de Catorce remain centres of annual pilgrimage, attracting thousands of people to thank and celebrate their chosen saints.
A programme of events will accompany the exhibition.




Felicity Powell: Charmed life features some 400 amulets, selected by Felicity Powell from Henry Wellcome's vast collection, which will be exhibited encircled by ten works by the artist. The amulets, ranging from simple coins to meticulously carved shells and from dead animals to elaborately fashioned notes, are from a collection within a collection, amassed by the banker and obsessive folklorist Edward Lovett, who scoured the city by night, buying curious objects from London's mudlarks, barrow men and sailors, which he sold on to Wellcome.
The amulets are objects of solace. Intended to be held, touched and kept close to the body, they are by turns designed and found, peculiar and familiar. The potency of the charms is invested through rituals of hope and habit. Each amulet on display has long been separated from its wearer, but collectively they form a repository for the anxieties, reassurances and superstitions of the city and its occupants. Lovett's amulets are held at the Pitt Rivers Museum where they have remained archived and largely unseen. The charms selected by Powell are uncanny: they are secrets brought to light.
Powell's own works address the strange allure of objects which are a source of comfort and compensation. Intricate miniatures, with white wax reliefs on black mirror slate, they carry the same intimacy of size as the amulets, and are meticulously crafted. Her portraits, which appear as inverted silhouettes, white on black, are all in a process of change, metamorphosing into other selves and creatures. Like Lovett's amulets, they seem to be more than themselves, hinting at a hidden magic at work, as they dip between real and imagined worlds. Using the reverse side of a mirror, Powell hides away literal reflection but leaves the viewer wondering at their playful and compelling strangeness.
Video of the pieces being made will be shown in the gallery, featuring the hands of the artist as she works.


this is also interesting in terms of a potential project for Foundation students..Identity: Eight rooms, nine lives



  • What influences or determines our sense of who we are? What makes one person distinct from another? How does science inform human identity? This major exhibition explored the tension between the way we view ourselves and how others see us.
  • Friday 16 September 2011

    Fashion week: Why does Central Saint Martins produce so many designers?

    I was sent this artical today by a colleague..which I thought was interesting in terms of CSM promoting and encouraging autonmous learning amonsgt its students. quote: "The training is very anti-establishment. But that is underpinned by a knowledge of pattern cutting and how clothes hang. It's not an anarchic free-for-all, there's a rigour in terms of the disciplines that go towards making a designer." 

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14911987
    Alexander McQueen's work: His 1992 graduate collection, pictured first, was bought by the late fashion icon Isabella Blow (Copyright: CSM and Getty)

    Quote:


    The fashion designer Miller, who specialised in knitwear and graduated in 2004, says it has a very hands-off approach to its teaching.
    "They leave you to get on with it and that made you so free. There were people who couldn't handle that kind of freedom - they wanted classes and structure but you only saw a tutor once every two weeks.
    "I was in from 8.30 in the morning to 8.30 at night. There was a handful of us doing that and it was those people who have gone on to do well. "
    And if she wasn't studying, she was working at the McQueen label.
    "We didn't have any free time to hang out in the pub. We did have fun but fashion is a competitive environment and you had to put in the work."

    What else...
    I have been doing quite abit of research for student London trip (11th - 14th October) I believe I have gone through the gallery/musuem directory in the last week...so much good stuff going on, Tacita Dean occupies the turbine Hall at TM, Cornelia Parker at the Whitechapel, curating government images etc and Grayson Perry at the British museum; theres also Postmodernism exhibition, the art of making and Annie lennox at the V&A

    Annie Lennox by Satoshi Saikusa, 1991. Image © Satoshi Saikusa









    ...but in particular is Progidy musician Maxim Reality is staging his first exhibition at Exhibition: MM Art: Lepidop Terror, INC Space, London, September 15-26 2011 . http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/painting+%26+drawing/art364300 unfortuntly we won't get to see it, so instead I am going to upload some more pictures; a constant reminder of what we could have been... 
    http://www.culture24.org.uk/home like this web site..